Spirit of Moonpie and I spent April 27-29 on the Blackwater below Franklin. The water was low, clear but stagnant looking, nasty and 70 degrees. Air temps ranged from 46 to 80 degrees. Thank goodness the pollen has abated somewhat. Skeeters are getting pretty bad, and I’m pretty sure I saw a couple of deer flies. Trash amazingly was not too bad this trip. I was expecting to see a lot after all the high water, and it had been awhile since I was on this part of the river. I did find a pretty weird thing, though. I guess it was the underpinning of a car — big, hard plastic piece that looked like it went under the wheel wells in the front of a vehicle… and it was floating. Pretty strange.

There was a bass tournament out there the first day. So, the river was pretty busy. I had no problems from that bunch, and everyone was respectful. On day two, however, I was pulled up on shore at the bridge at Route 189. A very large Boston Whaler-type boat with two people in it wearing high-visibility personal flotation devices came by me with the bow in the air. They slowed down just enough to send two-foot waves smashing into me that nearly swamped my little boat. That’s as close to sinking as I have encountered in a long time. I had seen the boat earlier in the day, and it looked like they were inspecting the bridge. Might have been VDOT, not sure. VDOT was working on the bridge the next day on my way out. If I would have had the extra gas, I would have chased them down, but I couldn’t spare the fuel. I certainly do not think the pilot did it on purpose, I just think he was ignorant about the characteristics of the boat he was handling. I would have liked to have educated him about that.

The fishing on this trip was… challenging. Like I said, the first day was tough with all the pressure from the tournament. But more than that, the swamp pre-spawn tactic I was having success with on the past two trips did not work on this trip. One difference was the water was low instead of high like it had been. Another thing was the water temp was now 70 degrees. So, the bass might be hard on the beds now? I only caught six bass this trip, four of them on the second day at 7 p.m. just before going to camp. I tied on a Heddon Torpedo, and the first four casts I caught four fish! Hung another something pretty big… might have been a blackfish and caught a huge jack. So that last hour of sunlight was pretty fun. I also caught right many redthroats… accidentally while fishing for bass using a white perch-looking crank bait. That was pretty weird.

I am happy to report that the Cherry Grove eagle nest has been rebuilt and is being used. The nest was destroyed, and then a rebuild was attempted, but it fell out of the tree again the past two or three years. But it’s been rebuilt and is being occupied now. I hope to see some babies around June. 

It’s very possible this was my last shore-based trip for the summer. It’s getting pretty hot, and the snakes are out in full force, as are the skeeters. Plus, it’s supposed to rain like every day for several days next week as a front stalls out over our area. So, I reckon I better get the pontoon boat prepped for the two rivers we call the Blackwater and Nottoway.

Jeff Turner is the Blackwater Nottoway RiverGuard. To contact him about river issues, send him an email at blknotkpr@earthlink.net. He can also be followed on the Blackwater Nottoway RiverGuard Facebook page. Search for “Blackwater Nottoway RiverGuard” on Facebook.